Louis Civello, a Suffolk County police officer and president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, detailed Tuesday a prior incident in which a protester he once arrested tracked him down and waited outside his home.
“We are at an inflection point. This job is harder than ever before,” Civello said during a New York State Public Safety Alliance event advocating for stronger legal protections for law enforcement officers and other local officials.
Civello recounted an incident in early 2026 in which he arrested a protester who showed up at his office for trespassing.
“Well, that wasn’t enough for this individual,” Civello said. “He then decided he was going to find my address, came to my home with a billboard truck. That’s how much money these people are making. They can buy billboard trucks,” Civello continued.
“Now, there’s only one reason to come to my house, right? I’m a public figure. Everyone knows where my building is in Suffolk County. There are seven police precincts in Suffolk County that you can protest in front of if you so choose. You only come to my home to terrorize my family, to get at me via my wife and my children,” Civello said. He then explained that the harassment his family endured from the provocateur was far from an isolated incident, but rather the norm.
He used the moment as an example of why he believed New York state needed to enact stronger protections for police officers, particularly as it pertains to privacy. “The laws are woefully inadequate, and they’re gonna get worse if we don’t work to fix them,” he said.
“Right now, no law against it. No law against coming to my house. So if you are a rapist, and I as a police officer arrest you, you can sit at the edge of my driveway and greet my wife as she comes home. No law against it. No law is publishing my address. If you want to look me up, look any police officer up, look any of us up, it’s a few clicks of a mouse,” he continued.
Civello called for an anti-doxxing law, and also questioned why New York doesn’t have a “Halo Law,” the popular moniker assigned to a newly enacted Florida statute that protects first responders from harassment after they give an individual a warning.
“Why don’t have an anti-doxxing law? Why don’t we have laws that make sense?” Civello asked.
Civello was not the only law enforcement officer calling for stronger protections.
“All we’re asking for is fifteen foot,” Scott Munro, the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said. “Fifteen foot, that’s all we’re asking for, for safety reasons.” Munro also highlighted the broader coalition the New York State Public Safety Alliance had cobbled together in an effort to protect public employees from civilian violence. The group, Munro relayed, included 99 unions. complete with firefighters, traffic agents, sanitation enforcement agents, environmental police, bus drivers and more.
“You’re gonna say ‘why MTA?'” Munro said, “it’s because they’re assaulted every day, they’re in their faces every day,” he continued. “Those people get assaulted every day. Assaults are up, almost 2,500 assaults this year alone on police officers, felony assaults, and public servants in New York City. That’s what-s going on,” Munro said.
